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Stanley Geddes
Stanley Geddes is the uncle of Alasdair Geddes, and his employer in the interim period between Morag Geddes' death and Alasdair's joining the crew of the Stellar Typhoon. Persona Stanley Geddes is the younger brother of Hunter Geddes, and thus also the uncle of Alasdair Geddes. In the brief period prior to Alasdair joining the crew of the Stellar Typhoon, ''Stanley was also his employer, frequently calling upon his services as a technician onboard one of the freighters belonging to his interstellar transport company. While not abusive by any means, Stanley can come across as rather strict, overbearing and pushy. He will generally put the interests of himself and his company over those of other people (sometimes even his wife). Despite his unpleasant external demeanour, in truth Stanley is rather insecure; Years of living under the shadow of his older brother have caused him to ''play himself up in order for anyone to take any notice of him; having taken sole charge of his transport company after Hunter's death, he frequently worries about it going under; this devotion to the interests of his company has driven a rift between him and several of his friends and relatives. Though we've not as of yet seen the other half, Stanley is married to fellow raccoon Alison. She handles most of his company's paperwork, and also serves to reign him in whenever he goes too far. His devotion to his job has often meant trouble for their marriage, but they always manage to pull through intact. Physical Description Stanley is a raccoon, who stands at about three feet, ten inches tall. He has brown eyes, and matching brown hair, generally cut to about shoulder length. Stanley can generally be seen wearing a jacket fashioned from the top half of an old boiler suit, with a maroon wool sweater underneath. To go with these, he has a pair of old denim jeans, and an equally aged pair of red trainers. On the jacket, Stanley has a tag with his name on it. Background Stanley Geddes was born on September 14th 2961, in the City of Glenfalcons, on the planet Procyon VI. News of Stanley's birth came as rather a surprise to friends of the Geddes family, as there was now a sizeable age gap between him and his older brother Hunter, who'd been born way back in 2946, and was now nearly 15 years old. By now, though, he was just beginning his pursuit of a career as a freighter pilot, and so he was very rarely in the house. Thus Stanley hardly saw his older brother for much of his early life. Stanley's childhood was a decidedly average one, if a little lonely for him. Being subjected to bullying at school left him often feeling insecure, and unsure of what to do with himself. There wouldn't have been much more to Stanley's childhood, if it weren't for one of the few friends he had: Finbar MacTaggart. Finbar was another raccoon, who lived in a tenement flat a few streets down from Stanley's home. He was two years older, but that didn't make him more mature or sensible. If anything, Finbar was very wild, unpredictable and off the wall, in stark contrast to Stanley's meek, sensible personality. Stanley found Finbar's behaviour a little unnerving, but he still chose to play with him, if only to reign him in from doing anything drastic. Stanley and Finbar saw a lot of each other during their formative years, and Finbar would often be the driving force behind Stanley trying out things he'd never have dreamed of doing on his own. One notable such thing was in the mid-70s, when both Stanley and Finbar had just left school. Finbar was dead set on enlisting as an officer in the Stellar Federation Military Police, and he successfully convinced Stanley to sign up as well. Stanley wasn't so keen on military life, but luckily for him, he ended up failing the entrance exam anyway, on medical grounds (the exact circumstances remain a mystery). However, this left him with a dilemma: what career could he pursue instead? The answer came a few weeks later, during a visit from both Hunter and his wife Morag (who Stanley had briefly met during their wedding in 2966). At this time, Hunter was beginning to get his transport company off the ground, but he was in need of extra hands. During the visit, Stanley happened to mention the fact that he'd got his stellar pilot's license almost immediately after leaving school, and this prompted Hunter to suggest that he join his new company. Figuring he had nothing to lose, Stanley accepted the suggestion, and began his training in 2977, onboard Hunter's flagship freighter-cum-home, the Clan Geddes. Then in 2981, Hunter decided that as part of an expansion of his operation (and also after one awkward moment too many onboard the Clan Geddes), Stanley should be entitled to his own freighter, and the two brothers (with Finbar tagging along, since he was on leave at the time) spent the better part of a week examining what could be offered by the best dealerships in Glenfalcons. Which, as it first appeared, was very little. However, Stanley persevered, and eventually came across a freighter he liked that was a reasonable size and cost. When he went to inquire about purchasing the freighter, Stanley found his luck was in for a second time (though he wouldn't admit it until several years later): working at this particular dealership was a beautiful young lady raccoon, and after negotiating a deal for the freighter, Stanley took it upon himself to introduce himself to this young lady, who then introduced herself as Alison Balfour. After chatting for a while, it transpired that Alison was interesting in a career change: she didn't want to be just selling the freighters; she wanted to travel on them. Afterwards, Stanley happened to bring this up to both Finbar and Hunter, and while the former took it as just an excuse for him to see more of Alison, the latter thought that he was onto a winner with that idea, and persuaded Alison to quit her old job and join his company (which by this stage had been named H&S Geddes Transport Solutions). After Alison joined the company, Stanley's working relationship with her blossomed, though he was still too shy to admit any further feelings for her. However, after a little prodding from his peers, he finally plucked up the courage to tell Alison what he truly thought about her. Alison then confessed that the feeling was mutual, and after a few months they started dating. In 2984, after a couple of years of going steady, Stanley finally decided to propose to Alison. Naturally, she accepted, and so that he'd have no chance of forgetting any future anniversaries, they timed their wedding day to coincide with Hunter and Morag's 15th wedding anniversary. They spent their honeymoon onboard Stanley's freighter, the Midnight ''Sun, ''but as soon as it was over, it was a case of ''back to work for both of them, working alongside Hunter and Morag (who had been joined in 2982 by daughter Valerie). The rest of the 80s, and the very early 90s, passed by very peacefully and uneventfully for both the Geddes couples, but then in October 2992, a devastating turn of events was to occur that would change Stanley's life forever. Apart from the Clan Geddes and the Midnight Sun, H&S Geddes owned a substantial number of other freighters, many of which were stored at the company's premises in Glenfalcons. One day, Hunter happened to be sweeping out the cargo hold of one of these freighters, when he accidentally dropped his cigarette (it should be noted that Hunter was not a heavy smoker: at this point he was merely a one a day man). Just as he was bending down to pick it back up, the entire hold suddenly burst into flames, and the freighter effectively exploded. It was later determined that traces of gunpowder from a recent delivery to Nant-Coed had permeated the walls and floors of the cargo hold, and been ignited by Hunter's cigarette. In any case, Stanley happened to be working elsewhere on the premises, so he was on hand to help avert the disaster. Sadly, despite Stanley's best efforts, the explosion and the resulting fire saw the total destruction of the freighter, some severe damage to a few others, and the death of Hunter Geddes. Stanley and Alison then provided comfort to the devastated Morag (who had only recently given birth to a second child, Alasdair). Stanley was also on hand to help Morag gain compensation for her husband's death, with great difficulty (the company Hunter had delivered the gunpowder to was owned by the Stellar Federation, who took a dim view on travellers like Morag). Eventually, after threatening a crippling lawsuit against the company in question, Stanley was able to claim the compensation Morag desperately needed, and also managed to get the legislation changed so that vehicles and vessels used to transport explosives could only be used for that single purpose (incidentally, this new legislation became known colloquially among freighter pilots as the Hunter Act, in his memory). In spite of the success Stanley had in helping Morag, he had another problem on his hands: what would happen to H&S Geddes? The two brothers had held equal ownership of the company, and after Hunter's death, Morag had inherited his share of the deed. However, Morag had found it too emotionally painful to continue her association with her late husband's company, so she had promptly sold her share to Stanley, before disappearing into the stars in the Clan Geddes (now renamed the Hunter). When Stanley found himself with full ownership of the company, he bravely decided that someone had to keep things running, and that it might as well be him, so with a reluctant Alison by his side he plunged headfirst into the business. This was also the point when Stanley's marriage began to show its first, slightest strains, as the headache following Hunter's death had put paid to Alison's aspirations of them having children together. Stanley, Alison and their company struggled throughout the remainder of the 90s, and through the turn of the 31st Century, but worse was to come for them. In late 3007, Stanley woke one day to the news that now Morag was dead as well, and that the Hunter had been destroyed. This shook up Stanley's life once again, especially when he discovered that his niece Valerie-who'd been staying with him at the time-would now be staying permanently with him and Alison. However, his nephew Alasdair had never gotten on well with him, and so refused the home being offered to him. He went off to stay with a friend who lived in Glenfalcons, while Valerie stayed with Stanley. Stanley's life carried on at a near nadir for him from this point on. Ever since Hunter's death some years earlier, Stanley had found it hard to keep the transport company from going under, especially since it was now one of the last truly independent companies of its type left anywhere in the Procyon System (most of his competitors had been bought up, and now operated as mere subsidiaries of major interstellar corporations). Staff shortages had been steadily rising over the last few years, and at one point things became so bad that Stanley had to force both Valerie and Alasdair into joining the company: the former as another freighter pilot, the latter as a technical engineer. Things seemed to pick up again for the next couple of years, but in mid-3009, the Midnight Sun was suddenly raided by a pirate cruiser, the Stellar Typhoon. By a strange coincidence, the ship's captain, one Jaws MacTaggart, happened to be the wife of Finbar, but that wasn't to be the only surprise Stanley received. Suddenly, and seemingly out of the blue, Alasdair decided that he'd finally had enough of his miserable life in Glenfalcons, and begged Jaws to take him away from it. Jaws agreed, and Stanley was forced to reluctantly follow suit. It's unknown what happened to Stanley after Alasdair's departure from Glenfalcons, but it's most likely that he is still suffering the same problems, and getting into the same old arguments with his peers and staff. It's also unclear just why Alasdair hated him so much, and with a return to the planet seeming unlikely, it seems we will never know for certain... Trivia Category:Characters Category:Protagonists Category:Civilians